I wish people would stop this "why is x employed when y is employed" stuff.

Molly's talented, Blake's talented. The overall problem is that the writers aren't utilizing these guys to their potential.

The best thing they could have done with Melanie is keep her like what she was when she first came there. Instead of turning her into Generic Female Villain Sami Ripoff #32516, they could have kept her as the quick-witted bad girl. Have Nick make a fortune off his alternative energy project, then have Melanie stay buttoned to his hip because of the money. Then you have Chelsea who breaks up with Daniel and realizes what a great guy she had with Nick. She starts pursuing Nick again, putting down Melanie, yadda yadda. Then you start a new epic triangle that you can drag out for a while. That would have been pretty entertaining. You could even throw in a brief fling between Melanie and Phillip for good measure.